1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electronic equipment cabinets and racks, and more particularly to racks having multiple mounting locations for the equipment.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the expansion of telecommunication and computer technology, increasing amounts of electronic equipment are required at businesses and other facilities. Typically, the equipment is coupled to racks as shown in FIG. 1. The equipment is generally organized in a cabinet 2 of standard dimensions with multiple vertical racks 4 to support columns of equipment. A plurality of standardized preset spaces 26 (where three (3) standardized spaces are sometimes referred to as a “U” space) can be used to mount the equipment. The cabinet 2 generally includes sides 6, back 8, top 10, bottom 12, and front 14. The front 14 generally includes a door to gain access to the equipment therein. Power rails, uninterruptible power supplies, and other features can be coupled to the racks or cabinet. To conserve space, the racks and cabinets are increasingly becoming loaded with a higher density of electronic equipment. This equipment generates heat and consumes power. Thus, information technology (IT) managers are often careful in placement of electronic equipment, such as servers and switches, so that the equipment can be properly cooled and not exceed power requirements for a given location.
For medium to large complexes, IT managers have a significant burden in tracking and managing available spaces on the racks for mounting electronic equipment. Commercially available database management software programs can assist IT managers in management of the available spaces. Such programs include Vista 500™ available from Aperture Technologies, Inc. of Stanford, Conn., or Rackwise™ available from Visual Network Design, Inc. of Burlingame, Calif. These design software programs are initially predictive of estimated available space, heat loads, weight, and power requirements. This data is based off the electronic device nameplate ratings. Then, as the spaces are populated, an operator usually enters the data of the particular electronic equipment with its installed location into the software. The software can then provide a correspondingly updated predictive model to assist the IT manager in assessing the available spaces, heat loads, and power availability. However, it is understood that the system does not provide actual and direct feedback to the software program and thus can only provide such information based on the operator input. If the data is incorrectly entered, so that equipment is actually in a different location, then the software predictive capabilities are based on error and are potentially harmful by providing misleading information. It is not uncommon for electronic equipment to be assigned to a given location in a rack, but the operator is unable to install the equipment in that location because a previous operator installed an earlier piece of electrical equipment in that location. The technician then installs the new equipment in yet a different location than intended and the data is not updated in the records, thus perpetuating the problem. Additionally, it is not uncommon for equipment to migrate from location to location or rack to rack as the IT computing environment is chaotic and ever changing. Thus, tracking these changes is difficult, labor-intensive, and time consuming.
Therefore, there remains a need for an improved system and method to provide actual data of installed electronic equipment to allow actual tracking of available locations from remote facilities without necessitating physical on-site determination of available locations.